Norman D. Hollyn, B.A.

Norman Hollyn has been described as a “media expert,” a reference to his experience in both the old and new media worlds. He is a long-time film, television and music editor (Heathers, The Cotton Club, and Oliver Stone’s Wild Palms) who is an Associate Professor and Head of the Editing Track in the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He has also worked extensively in entertainment and media Internet development for large entertainment companies and schools. He is a member of AMPAS (the Motion Picture Academy), American Cinema Editors, the Motion Picture Editors Guild, METal (a group of entertainment entrepreneurs) and the Editors Advisory Group (a select group of top editors who advise major non-linear editing companies on strategy and content).

He is a frequently published author, having published nearly 100 articles in many magazines and peer-reviewed journals, and has written the standard editing room textbook, The Film Editing Room Handbook (the fourth edition has just been published). His recent book – The Lean Forward Moment, a book about shaping stories across all filmmaking crafts – came out from Peachpit Press/Pearson in 2009 and has been adopted in schools and companies across the world. In the New Media realm, he is the co-writer, co-host and co-producer of 2 REEL GUYS, a series of video podcasts about telling stories, and appears on video and audio podcasts such as The Digital Production Buzz and Macbreak Studio, as well as running webinars for a number of companies. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and conventions. He blogs regularly at his web site, Hollyn-wood

He has taught both nationally and internationally, including workshops for the Royal Film Commission in Jordan, the Sundance Institute, Dreamworks Pictures and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and has worked as an expert witness in legal cases involving the aesthetics and history of editing. He is presently editing a documentary, about architecture called Off the Grid, which he is co-directing, and a narrative feature film. His last documentary, Rivers, a worldwide cooperative venture about people's relationship to the rivers in their countries, was shown for the first time at an international conference in Beijing, China.